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Ionones: violet notes

I imagine that the enfleurage technique was tried many times on the violet flower. It is a technique very much practised in the 19th century which consisted in macerating flowers in purified animal fat. When this fat was saturated with the odorous molecules of the flowers, the perfume was separated from the fat with alcohol to obtain the absolute of the ointments. This process has certainly been abandoned for the violet flower, probably for reasons of yield, too low or perhaps none at all, as with the lily of the valley flower. The violet leaf, on the other hand, is easier to extract thanks to volatile solvents, but its smell is radically different from the flower: violet leaf absolute has a green, intense, powerful, vegetal smell with a slight odour of hay.

 

 

History

Zeus, who was in love with Io at the time, ordered the Earth to create the most beautiful flower in her honour: the violet. He loved this flower (in ancient Greek, IOV or Ion, hence the name ionone).

Napoleon was sometimes nicknamed "Caporal Violette". It became the emblem of the Napoleonic imperial party.

In England, its scent was most popular in the Victorian era. Virtuous violets are often associated with simplicity and modesty.

It was Tiemann and Kruger who succeeded in 1898 in synthesising the ionone, the result of a chemical reaction between citral isolated from litsea cubeba or lemongrass with acetone. These ionones were a valuable contribution to the history of 20th century perfumery. The synthetic alpha ionone has allowed the perfumer to recreate the smell of violet flower and iris with its sweet, floral, powdery, and violet candy with its fruity aspect.

There are 2 isomers in the ionone family: alpha and beta.

Here are some fragrances containing ionones:

  • Violette De Parme 1880
  • Violette Ambrée 1890
  • Prima Violetta bourgeois 1890
  • Vera Violetta (Roger Gallet) 1892

A little later, the synthesis of methylionones was discovered. Methylionones are easier to use in a composition, they have more faceted notes: more iridescent, softer and powdery than ionones. Methylionones also have 3 isomers: alpha, beta and gamma.

Here are some fragrances containing both ionones and methylionones (including two great masterpieces):

  • Origan by Coty 1905
  • Heure Bleue by Guerlain 1912
  • La Violette de Toulouse by Berdoues 1936
  • Violetta di Parma by Borsari 1970
  • Detchema by Revillon 1953
  • Masculin by Karl Lagerfeld 1978
  • Paris by YSL 1983
  • Eternity by Calvin Klein 1988
  • Trésor by Lancôme 1990
  • Tocade by Rochas 1994 
  • Aimez Moi by Caron 1996
  • Verte Violette by L'Artisan Parfumeur 2001
  • Flower by Kenzo 2000
  • Lolita Lempicka 2004
  • Insolence by Guerlain 2006 
  • Florentina by Sylvaine Delacourte 2016

There are bases also called specialties that give this violet effect:

  • Parmanthème: cucumber + violet effect
  • Iralia: a very iridescent methylionone
  • Bouvardia
  • Violettine

In the same olfactory family as ionones and methylionones, we find irone, one of the natural constituents of the iris and therefore much more expensive. It is an exceptional product, one could say that it is the soul of the iris. The essence contains up to 15%. But there are also synthetic irones: alpha, beta and ironal. Ionones and methylionones combine wonderfully with even more iridescent notes: natural or synthetic irones or iris absolute. It should be noted that the essence of iris or concrete comes from the rhizome and not from the flower.

 

Iris

"The iris is the messenger of the gods, especially of Hera, to whom it brought good news. Blue irises have the same meaning: good news, while purple irises give a more romantic twist to the message.”

The iris Pallida, of Italian origin and more precisely from Tuscany, is the most sought after in perfumery. The butter of iris Pallida, which comes from the root (rhizome), is very expensive, as it takes about 6 years to obtain its precious fragrance. The iris Germanica, another botanical variety (Morocco), has a totally different scent from the Pallida, and I personally like it less.

It is one of the most expensive raw materials in perfumery and one of my favourites. Iris Pallida butter is considered as an essence = 12.000€ per kg approximately. Pallida Iris Absolute: about 120/140,000€ per kg is very rarely used, due to its exorbitant price.

Here are some perfumes with very iridescent notes that I really like:

Thanks to Maurice Roucel, a perfumer I admire a lot, one of the rare perfumers with a chemist's background with whom I developed two perfumes: L'instant de Guerlain, Insolence de Guerlain and Valkyrie from my Vanilla Collection. He gave me the desire to make this post, during his very precise and technical conference on ionones, a complex subject that I have tried to pass on to you in a simpler way, and I hope to do so as well as possible.

 

Sylvaine Delacourte perfumes

Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.